Okay guys, I am back!

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Okay guys, I am back!

After more than five years of staying in the house/room that we were renting, we finally found another place to live and last September 22, we packed our things and with the help of my parents, we transferred to a new apartment, this time in Makati City.

After such a long time, we finally had courage to find another place. This time, my husband and I agreed to spend twice to what we were paying before in exchange of a little comfort and privacy. We agreed to find a single-room apartment or at least a studio-type which suits our budget. Not only that, the apartment should at least be five to ten minutes away from my workplace or his to minimize transportation expenses. We decided to transfer near his workplace because the rent is less expensive compared to the apartments along Ortigas where I am currently working.

This was the second time that we tried to find a place to rent and compared to Malibay, it was not easy to find one in Makati. For two consecutive Sundays, we tried to find a place which fit suits our requirements and it was never that easy. In Malibay, you can find “ROOM/APARTMENT/HOUSE for rent flyers and announcements almost everywhere but in Makati, you really have to go from one street to another and in some places, you still had to send text messages to the owner/administrator to find out whether the place had already been occupied or not.

On the first Sunday, after scouting for apartments in several streets, we thought we had finally found the right place. It was a single room apartment just a couple blocks away from the school, and two to three minutes walk to the highway. However, the man who accommodated us turned to be the landlady's younger brother and he could not give us concrete answers about the rent, the schedule of payment, facilities and house rules so he gave us his sister's cell phone number. However, after several hours of waiting, the landlady sent us her reply and to our disappointment, the apartment had already been paid by someone.

I went alone on the second Sunday since my husband had a lot of paperworks to be submitted the next day. I got off in front of Benigno Aquino High School as reference point and searched again and once again, I had found some but I needed to send text messages first. I even hadn't noticed that I already was in another place---Pateros--- and I went back to Makati. Luckily, I found two two-bedroom apartments and finally, I saw a medium-sized brown placard with ROOM FOR RENT written on it, hanging on the gate of one of the houses near Ospital ng Makati. At first, I hesitated and thought “room na naman?” I really did not know why I asked the owner about the said announcement and I found out that the room to be rented was a small studio with terrace. It had matched our qualifications (price, accessibility and facilities) so I asked the owner if they could wait for me until the next afternoon because I would be bringing my husband along to see the apartment, to which they agreed.

The next day, I went back together with my husband, and to my surprise, he loved the place. Unfortunately, we haven't brought any cash so we immediately went to the bank to withdraw money and I paid for the apartment the next morning. She told us that the room would undergo minor renovation since the former tenant had left with some facilities broken such as the sink and the right part of the floor and that there would be a provision for small bedroom to allow some privacy. The following Saturday, she sent us a text message informing us that we could start occupying the room anytime we wanted. So we agreed to leave our former boarding house the following Saturday and we asked my parents' help because my dad owns an old model Tamaraw FX to minimize expenses in bringing our things with us.